


Kids Like These

by Princex_N



Category: Lazer Team (2015)
Genre: Ableist Language, Disability, Drabble, Father-Son Relationship, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Intellectual Disability, Neurodiversity, Pre-Canon, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 20:28:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11238579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princex_N/pseuds/Princex_N
Summary: The two of them have to stick together; if they don't look out for each other, no one else will.





	Kids Like These

**Author's Note:**

> If there's a disabled character _and_ the potential for Team as Family relationships, you know i've got my hands all _over_ that shit.

Herman and Woody are wrapping up a night out when Herman asks, "You want me to take you home?" like he always does, glancing over at Woody, who's sitting politely in the passenger seat. 

"Aw, no. I don't think my mom wants to see me much today," the younger man says, with a grin on his face that feels too lighthearted for what he's saying. He rubs at his arm in a way that Herman recognizes from football practices all those years ago, and Herman feels something cold and angry settle in his gut. "I can just go to the library, they let me stick around late sometimes."

Herman has a crack lined up on his tongue about how he hadn't known that Woody could actually read, but what he winds up saying instead is, "Nah, you can stay at my place tonight." 

Woody's face lights up, as if this is the first time it's been offered, and his hand drops down from where it had been absently rubbing the bruise on his arm as he beams over at Herman from across the gearshift. "Shit, really?" he asks, and leans back against the head rest, "Neat." 

Herman huffs out a laugh at the kid's familiar exclamation, and flicks on his blinker to turn own the road that goes back to his apartment instead of the one that heads to Woody's mom's place. 

He'd worry about what people would say about his grown ass bringing a barely twenty-year-old back to his place, if he hadn't stopped caring about what people said or thought about him a long time ago. Or if the people around here actually bothered to pay attention to him  _or_ Woody; the town's outcasts.

That's why the two of them have to stick together, after all. If they don't look out for each other, no one else will. 

So Herman drives them out to his shit apartment on the edge of town and lets Woody take the couch again and acts like he doesn't have a blanket set aside specifically for nights like these, and bids the kid goodnight. 

Herman tells himself that it's not a big deal, and that it doesn't mean that they're actually close friends or whatever, but when he gets up in the middle of the night to take a leak, he catches sight of the kid and resigns himself to the fact that he can't actually make himself believe that. 

Woody is sprawled out on the couch, the blanket balled up under his head like a pillow and his face buried in the fabric, his stupid ass hair an absolute mess. Herman just sort of shakes his head, because of course the kid wouldn't use the blanket as a blanket and Herman's grown to expect these sorts of things from Woody after all this time. But he looks at this kid, with his scrawny ass limbs and his piece of shit brain, and wonders how anyone would want to hit a kid like this. 

At the same time, he could  _maybe_ see it. Herman won't act like he was a saint back in high school, and he can admit that it can be frustrating when you've got to repeat yourself three or four times before Woody understands what you're saying to him, but Herman's a fucking adult now, and he knows better. 

He's known about Woody's mom for a while now, because the kid doesn't seem to be able to lie, and he's not great about hiding things from other people in the first place. Herman doesn't make a big deal out of it because Woody doesn't want him to, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't get pissed off about it sometimes. Most times. 

And he thinks briefly about calling the cops. Debates the merits of calling Half-Ass fucking Hagan out here and getting him involved in this, but everybody knows everybody in this town. Everybody knows Woody, and they've known him his whole life. 

They know how he's still sticking around his mom's place because he dropped out of high school and can't keep down a job, and how she still has to help him with things that a man his age probably should have figured out by now. Hagan probably wouldn't let it slide, but it's not up to him, and charges like these wouldn't stick, not to  _this_ kid's mom. 

So instead, it crosses his mind to just let Woody stay here, at his place, indefinitely. It's not like they don't already spend just about all of their time outside of work together anyway, so there wouldn't even be that much of a difference. 

But there's a game tomorrow night, and Herman still doesn't make the best decisions when there's a home game coming up, and so he doesn't actually plan to act on the thought. 

Still, he keeps the idea at the back of his mind, just in case, after they burn all of those fireworks tomorrow, he's still thinking about this. 

After all, since Woody's too fucking stupid to take care of himself right, it's Herman's job to get that shit taken care of, because if they don't look out for each other, no one else will. 

**Author's Note:**

> I just saw this movie yesterday, and I'm pretty sure that this fun goofy comedy wasn't supposed to make me this emotional over the characters. I've got a way longer fic about Woody in the works, and possibly one about Zach as well, so keep your eyes peeled. This is the sort of shit I get up to instead of working on my shit for class. 
> 
> [my tumblr](http://www.princex-n.tumblr.com)


End file.
